My Name Is Nobody

by Maureen Crane Wartski

A desperate teenager on the brink of suicide is rescued by a retired policeman who gives the boy a home and an appreciation for life.

182 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1988

About the author

Maureen Crane Wartski (Maureen Ann Crane) was born on January 25, 1940 in Ashiya, Japan. She earned her B.A. degree from Sophia University in 1962. As a children's and young adult author, she won the Annual Book Award of the Child Study Committee at Bank Street College of Education for A Boat to Nowhere. In addition to writing children's books, she published romance novels under various pseudonyms, including Francine Shore, Evelyn Shannon, Cynthia Leigh, Laura Jorda, Cynthia Sinclair, and Rebecca Ward. She also wrote for magazines, such as Boy's Life. As well as writing, Wartski taught at Sharon High School in Sharon, Massachusetts, and pursued various creative arts, such as painting and quilt making. She was married to Maximillian Wartski, and travelled with him for his career in the military. Her two sons, Albert and Mark, were born in Thailand, before they moved to the United States in the 1960s. Wartski died on January 14, 2014 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Daxx Jorgensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

About to commit suicide, 15-year-old Robby Holland is rescued and taken home by feisty ex-cop Kurt Doyle. Robby is a decent young man, but most of the spirit has been beaten out of him by his abusive, no-account father. Almost, but not quite, convinced of his own worthlessness, he alternately accepts and rejects both Doyle's kindly trust and the drugs and threats of a local gang of hoods. When Doyle is implicated in an attempted robbery, Robby loses faith in him; but when the old man has a heart attack, the teen-ager battles a storm at sea to get him and his sailboat to safety. Characters here aren't as powerfully drawn as in Magorian's classic Goodnight, Mr. Tom, but the sources of Robby's confusion are clearly laid out, and he does rind the strength to weather some strong challenges.

[Phobean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a obsessed with Abandoned Boy books as a teen. This book really scratched the itch, especially as it also included a Grumpy Old Man, who ‘rescues’ the boy. Somehow, the tables get reversed so they end up rescuing each other by the conclusion. Satisfying.